Getting a working macOS guest on VMware Workstation is four separate jobs, and most write-ups cover one of them. This repo covers the chain end to end: patch Workstation → obtain a macOS image → create the VM and install → make the guest actually usable.
Every part carries an explicit status. Parts marked not yet validated are checklists built from documented sources, not procedure that has been watched working here. That distinction is the entire point of this repo — see below.
| Part | What it covers | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Unlocker | Exposing macOS as a guest type. Why the popular unlocker silently does nothing on Workstation 26.x, and what to use instead | ✅ Validated on 26.0.0.25388281 (26H1) / Windows 11, 2026-07-22 |
| 2 · Obtaining macOS | Pulling a recovery image from Apple's own servers and converting it to a format Workstation will boot (VMDK, not ISO) | ✅ Validated 2026-08-11 — 3 versions built and all three booted and installed |
| 3 · VM creation & install | Wizard settings, the version-dropdown trap, the single-socket rule, Disk Utility, the install itself | ✅ Validated on THREE versions 2026-08-11 — Ventura 13, Sequoia 15, Tahoe 26, with the Setup Assistant drift between them |
| 4 · Post-install | VMware Tools, clipboard, shared folders, and headless SSH access | ✅ Validated on THREE versions 2026-08-11 — SSH-reachable guests; bash 3.2 / BSD sed / no tac identical on 13, 15 and 26 |
No binaries are redistributed here — no darwin.iso, no patched VMware files, no unlocker
release, no macOS image. Everything is fetched from its own maintainer or from Apple.
📋 FINDINGS.md — every defect and trap hit along the way, with the environment it was seen in and steps to reproduce it. Thirteen so far — one publicly retracted, and two of them defects in this repo's own tooling and advice. Reported upstream where the project accepts reports (BDisp/unlocker#79, DrDonk/OC4VM#100).
All four parts are now validated on hardware. Every checklist here was replaced with real captured output as it was actually run, and the status column above moved in the same commit — so what you are reading is what was tested, on the versions named. Where something was not exercised it says [unverified] rather than quietly generalising.
Validated end to end on Ventura 13.7.8, Sequoia 15.7.9 and Tahoe 26.6.1 — three macOS releases spanning 2022 to 2026, on one host.
If any of these is your situation, you're in the right place — they are all the same single cause, explained below:
- macOS / Apple Mac OS X is missing from the guest operating system list in VMware Workstation.
- The unlocker said
Finished!but nothing happened — no macOS option, no change at all. - The unlocker printed
0 File(s) copiedover and over while backing up. - It failed with
FileNotFoundErroronSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VMware, Inc.\VMware Workstation. - It reported a blank install path and blank product version for a VMware that is clearly installed.
darwin.isonever downloaded —HTTP Error 404fromsoftwareupdate.vmware.com.- macOS support worked, then disappeared after a VMware Workstation update.
- You are on Workstation Pro 26.x / 26H1 and every unlocker guide you can find was written for version 15.
Running as Administrator, disabling antivirus, re-downloading the unlocker and reinstalling Workstation will not fix any of them.
Your unlocker printed Finished! and macOS still isn't in the New Virtual Machine wizard.
Nothing was patched. The widely-circulated Unlocker 3.0.2 (Dave Parsons, 2018) targets Workstation 11–15; on 26.x it fails at every stage and then exits reporting success. That silent success is the whole problem — there is no error to search for, so the usual next moves (re-download, run as admin, disable antivirus, reinstall Workstation) are all aimed at the wrong thing.
| # | What 3.0.2 assumes | What Workstation 26.x does | Symptom |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VMware, Inc.\... |
64-bit now — keys are in the native hive HKLM\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\... |
Blank install path and version, then FileNotFoundError from OpenKey |
| 2 | vmware-vmx.exe in the install root |
Moved to the x64\ subfolder (InstallPath64) |
0 File(s) copied — including the backup, so there is no rollback either |
| 3 | Tools from softwareupdate.vmware.com |
Dead post-Broadcom | HTTP Error 404, no darwin.iso |
The fix: the maintained fork, BDisp/unlocker release
3.1.4, which reads the native hive, backs up from x64\, and falls back to the Broadcom
package feed. Its changelog for 3.1.4 reads "Fixed Windows registry in the VMware 26H1" —
issue #79.
Full console output of both runs on the same machine, minutes apart: part1-evidence.md.
# Before you start — read-only, no admin needed.
# Tells you whether a legacy unlocker would silently no-op on THIS machine.
.\tools\Test-UnlockerPreflight.ps1
# After patching — read-only. Proves the patch actually landed.
.\tools\Test-UnlockerPatch.ps1Test-UnlockerPatch.ps1 does not trust timestamps alone. Where the
unlocker's backup-windows\ folder is available it hashes each backed-up original against its
installed counterpart, which is definitive and requires no knowledge of what the patch writes. When
the two signals disagree it says so rather than resolving in favour of the good news — that exact
disagreement (stock binaries, recent timestamps) is the signature of a Workstation update having
silently reverted the patch.
Both scripts were written for this repo, after the fact. The 2026-07-22 run used BDisp's own
win-install.cmd and manual verification; the scripts exist because the missing preflight check is
what made the first attempt cost an afternoon.
The patching work is not mine. This repo is documentation, tooling and evidence around it.
- BDisp/unlocker — the maintained fork supporting Workstation 11–26H1 / Player 7–25H2. This is what you should download.
- DrDonk/unlocker — the archived upstream (Dave Parsons). Unlocker 3.0.2, the version that fails on 26.x, comes from here. Linked because it is still the first result most people find.
- DrDonk/recoveryOS — creates virtualisation-ready macOS recovery images. Used in Part 2.
- acidanthera/OpenCorePkg —
macrecovery.py, the canonical way to pull recovery images from Apple's servers.
- Windows hosts only. Not VMware Fusion, ESXi, or Linux hosts.
- Apple's macOS EULA permits macOS only on Apple-branded hardware. Documented here for local testing, troubleshooting and UAT. Assess your own position before relying on it.
- A Workstation product update overwrites the patched binaries and silently removes macOS support.
Re-run
win-install.cmd, thenTest-UnlockerPatch.ps1.
MIT, covering the documentation and scripts in this repo only. The linked projects carry their own licences.